IORSSTU (2)

Word of the Week

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IORSSTU (2)

(unscramble the letters to form this week's word...)

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This week's word is...

TSOURIS (plural-only noun)

• Definition: troubles, worries, woes; aggravation; a series of misfortunes

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: (none)
• Anagrams: SUITORS (pl. of SUITOR n., one who courts a woman)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: TSORES, TSORIS, TSURIS, TZURIS, TSOORIS, TSORRISS
• Related Forms: (none)

TileHead Says:

This remarkable word derives from the Yiddish tsore ("trouble, woe") and ultimately from the Hebrew sarar ("to become narrow" or "to be in distress, to be troubled").  Because Yiddish is written in the Hebrew alphabet, English words based on it have gone through TRANSLITERATION ("the representation of letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script").  And since transliteration is an inexact science, spelling variations abound with such words.  TSOURIS, for example, is notable for having seven valid spellings!  Note that all forms of this word are considered to be plural-only constructions in English: trouble begets trouble, it would seem.

The word is often used in interesting and evocative ways in literature and memoir.

"It wasn't enough you followed me every day for weeks and brought such tsooris raining down on me?" he asked her. "You have to follow me wherever I go like a dog? There's nobody else you can haunt?"
–Gerald Shapiro, From Hunger: Stories (1993)

I see I have much work to do to help my nephew. There is tsouris everywhere my boy, but there is always more if this is all you see.
– Thane Rosenbaum, Elijah Visible: Stories (1999)

She taught him about anxiety and tsuris, about bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders, and – most important of all – about the benefits of an occasional good cry.
– Paul Auster, Timbuktu (2009)

"Apt words"

In Other Words...
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Apt words have power to swage
The tumors of a troubl'd mind.
– John Milton, Samson Agonistes (1671)

BCDEEINT

Word of the Week

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BCDEEINT

(unscramble the letters to form this week's word...)

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This week's word is...

BENEDICT n. pl. -S

• Definition: A newly married man, especially an apparently confirmed bachelor who marries

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: -ION(S), -ORY
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: BENEDICK (n. pl. -S)
• Related Forms: (none)

TileHead says:

The only definition of this word currently in use comes directly from the character of that name in William Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1600).  Benedick proclaims he will never marry and denies his love for Beatrice until the very end of the play, when the two characters finally admit their love for each other and make plans to tie the knot.  Thus the word came to refer to a newly married man who was previously set against marriage, or as Ebenezer Cobham Brewer memorably stated in his famous Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, "a sworn bachelor caught in the wiles of matrimony."

In Shakespeare's time the word BENEDICT / BENEDICK could also mean "blessed, benign" or in medicine "something mildly laxative," as in "Rhubarb and other Medicines that are benedict" (Francis Bacon, 1626).

Until recently, BENEDICT was most properly used to mean "a perennial bachelor sworn to celibacy" (after St. Benedict, famous for celibacy), while BENEDICK was used to mean "a sworn bachelor who eventually marries" (after the Shakespearean character).  Nowadays the two words are used more-or-less interchangeably to refer to a newly married man who has long been a bachelor.

All of these names and words, by the way, derive from the Latin benedictus ("blessed").  Other words from the same root include BENISON, BENEDICTION, and BENEDICTORY.

"It is on my planet!"

In Other Words...
 A feature wherein TileHead presents a quote that is interesting, informative, inspiring, or humorous:

[Family is playing Scrabble]
Steve Smith: QUIVECS? That's not a word.
Roger the Alien: It is on my planet!
Francine Smith: Is it a proper noun?
[beat]
Roger the Alien: Damn!
[rearranges letters]
– In the TV series American Dad! (2005)

EELORTUV (2)

Word of the Week

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EELORTUV (2)

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This week's word is...

TRUELOVE n. pl. -S

• Definition: a faithful lover; a sweetheart; a beloved

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: REVOLUTE (adj. rolled backward or downward)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

TileHead says:

TRUELOVE is a very old word, having been recorded as treowlufu in Old English writings and and as trewe loue (and other variations) in Middle English writing from the 1300s.  Indeed, it has survived through the ages with a similar meaning, seemingly as faithful and enduring as the concept it describes.

Lo this is he that with his flaterye
Bytraised hath & don hire vilenye
That was his trewe loue in thought & dede.
(Modern translation:
Lo this is he that with his flattery
Betrayed hath and done her villainy
That was his truelove in thought and deed.)
– Geoffrey Chaucer, "Legend of Good Women" (c. 1385)

Fly, Lady-Bird, North, South, or East, or West,
Fly where the Man is found that I love best.
He leaves my hand, see to the West he's flown,
To call my true-love from the faithless town.
– John Gay, "Thursday: Or, The Spell" (1720)

I am a lady young in beauty waiting
Until my truelove comes, and then we kiss.
– John Crowe Ransom, "Piazza Piece" (1924)

Happy Valentine's Day!

"Spread the word"

In Other Words...
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Spread the word and you'll be free
Spread the word and be like be
Spread the word I'm thinking of
Have you heard the word is love?
– The Beatles, in the song "The Word" (1965)

ADEIQRU

Word of the Week

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ADEIQRU

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This week's word is...

QUERIDA n. pl. -S

• Definition: a female sweetheart, a darling (often used as a form of address); sometimes, a mistress

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: (none)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

TileHead says:

English often picks and chooses selectively from other languages. This sweet word, stemming from the Spanish querer ("to love, desire, seek out"), has appeared in English since the early 1800s and is recorded in many dictionaries.  One would expect the masculine form, querido, to have received similar lexicographic treatment, but for some reason it is rarely listed and therefore is not acceptable in Scrabble play.

The "sweetheart" sense seems to be far more common nowadays, with the "mistress" sense having been more widely used in the past.

"I think you should be getting home, querida. If your mother should wake and find you gone, you know she'll worry."
– Meg Cabot, The Mediator Twilight (2005)

"Does it please you, querida?"
"I think it looks very quaint and pretty," replied Linda, who was prepared to be pleased with anything. "It looks like a home."
– Claude M. Girardeau, "Shop of the Green Door" (1906)

"English has pursued other languages..."

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The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that... we don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle through their pockets for new vocabulary.
– James Nicoll (1961- )